


Shift

by rinthegreat



Category: Free!
Genre: Angst, I'm so sorry, M/M, Post Season 2 Pre Rin Leaving for Australia, Post-First Time, Rinharu Week, Rinharu Week 2015, so much fucking angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-05-03 18:38:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5302526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinthegreat/pseuds/rinthegreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin makes a run for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shift

**Author's Note:**

> RinHaru Week: Transformation (Canonverse)
> 
> Third and final entry for this year's RH Week. I'm so sorry this is trash.

            “I’m going to take a bath.”  Haru pushes off the bed, his weight causing it to dip and rise.  There’s a soft padding as he walks away, then a click as the door to the bathroom closes.

            Rin sits up.  He’s still covered in sweat; it hasn’t even been long enough for him to dry off.  They’ve barely finished and Haru already can’t get away from him fast enough. 

            Not that he really expects anything different.

            He kicks his legs over the edge, his thighs and ass already sore, and buries his face into his hands.  It wasn’t anything less than he expected, but already he’s disappointed.

            In himself.

            Beneath his hands, Rin grimaces, deprecating and bitter.  How pathetic.

            Haru will be in the bath a while, he knows.  Washing off what they’d just done, most likely.  Rin has time, but there’s an itch under his skin.  He needs to get of here.  Now.

            He pulls on his underwear, inside out, then his pants.  He checks around the room once his shirt and jacket follow, but he can only find one of his socks.  It doesn’t matter.  He doesn’t care about those anyway.

            It feels like he’s just finished committing a crime when he sneaks down the hallway, tiptoeing and clutching his bag to his chest.  In a way, he supposes he kind of did.

            He jams his shoes on, heel beaten down so he doesn’t waste time, and slips out of the door with a soft click.  Rin only pauses long enough to fix his shoes, but then he’s off running.  His feet pound down the steps, and he narrowly misses clotheslining Makoto with his bag.

            “Rin?”  The other’s question is lost to the wind as Rin stumbles down the last few stairs, staggering a few feet before taking the next corner at a sprint.  He considers running all the way home, but the prospective questions from Gou and his mother steer him to the train station instead.

            His lungs are bursting from the effort and his lower back feels like it’s about to snap in half when he slows to a walk.  He’s used to running, but not so fast for so long.  And not after doing…that.

            The next train isn’t due for another twenty minutes, so he just drops his bag and leans back against the column.  It doesn’t take long for him to catch his breath.  Even less time for all the fears he’d been running from to catch up to him.

            It wasn’t supposed to happen.  He’d just…slipped.  They’d been swimming, for fun now that the season was over, relishing their time together with everyone before Rin left for Australia.  Rin had convinced Haru to stay for one more race.  He should’ve known it was all doomed when Makoto bade them farewell with the others.

            Of course he confessed.  Racing Haru gave Rin a high he couldn’t come down from even if he wanted to.  They’d raced five times before the fading light made them call it quits.  Rin had thrown his arm around Haru’s shoulders, just like always, still basking in the afterglow, and Haru had graced him with that tiny half-smile of his.

            He couldn’t help it.

            “I love you so much, Haru.”  It had burst out of his chest like alien, splattering the whole area with its acid.

            Haru hadn’t said anything at all.  He stared at Rin like he’d grown a second head, and Rin had almost bolted right then.  But then Haru pulled him into a kiss.  It was sloppy, horrible, all teeth clacking and none of the soft sweetness Rin had been hoping for.

            They got a little better at it, replacing teeth with tongue until Rin’s suit got too tight.  When they pulled apart, Haru had looked at it pointedly, then at Rin, pupils blown wide.  Fucking beautiful.  “My place is close.”  That had been enough for Rin.

            But it was just sex.  He knew that going into it.  Haru could barely stand him back when they were kids.  It was a miracle they’d even gotten as far as friendship.  He’d thought, for a wild second together in Australia, that they could be more.  But Haru had just clenched his fist and stayed with his back to Rin all night.  That had been enough of an answer for him then.

            Should still be enough of an answer now.

            Rin pulls his collar up, wishing he’d had the foresight to bring his hat to the pool that day.  Dammit, he really might cry at this rate.  This is why he’d never planned to confess in the first place.

            He still has another fifteen minutes till the train arrives, and he needs some distraction.  Watching the people wandering around the station isn’t working.  He sees one couple, holding hands and snatches his bag, hoisting it back over his shoulder.  A soda ought to cool him down.  Maybe he’ll call Sousuke.  Wake him up, because he’s an asshole like that.

            They’re out of his favorite flavor, because that’s the kind of luck he has.  He picks a different one at random but just stands there, staring unseeingly at the machine after it drops the can.  They’d gone from 0 to 100 in less than a second, one moment everything like normal and the next Haru was getting up from the sweat covered sheets to wash off the evidence of their sin.  How could he have fucked up so bad?

            Rin lets his head fall against the glass.  It’s cold; a welcome relief to the fever burning under his skin.

            He probably stole Haru’s first kiss too.

            The tears really do start to fall, thick and fast, alone in the hallway with the vending machines.  It’s late enough at night that the station is mostly empty.  No one is likely to come and disturb him here in his misery.

            “Rin!”  Great.  Now he’s hearing things too.

            “Rin!”  The shout is louder this time.  He looks straight up at the vending machine, as if it could give him any answers.  “Rin!”

            He jerks his head over at the last one as Haru skids to a halt in the entrance to the hallway.  One look tells Rin that Haru also sprinted straight here.  He’s wearing sweats, slung low enough over his hips that Rin can tell he’s not wearing anything under them.  He has a t-shirt on, drenched at the shoulders where his hair is still drying.  And his shoes…are slippers.

            A few people pass by behind Haru, giving him strange looks.  It’s no wonder; this is Japan and that’s no way to walk around a train station at eleven at night.  It would be strange even in Australia.  “Haru, what –“

            “What are you doing here?”  Haru finishes his sentence, fury laced between the words.  It should be obvious what he’s doing here, and Rin’s about to say that but then Haru’s stalking forward, seizing the collar of his shirt.  “Are you crying?”

            Haru’s pissed, but Rin can’t figure out why.  He’d already left.  What more had he forgotten?  “I’m going back to Samezuka,” he mutters instead of answering properly, grabbing Haru’s wrists.  “Let me go.”

            Haru just tightens his grip as Rin tries to ease him off.  “What the hell, Haru?”  He’s starting to get pissed now too.  He’d already beat himself up over it; he really doesn’t need Haru to do the same.  “Let me go.”

            “No.”  There it is, that stubborn lilt to Haru’s voice.  The tone that means he’s not budging.  He’d done that back when Rin wanted him to join the relay.  The only reason he’d reconsidered was because of Makoto.

            “Let me go.”

            “No.”

            “Let me go!”

            He tries to force Haru back, but his legs are worn out from the sex and the sprinting, giving Haru the advantage.  They tussle for a minute before Rin finds his back pressed against the vending machine, the forgotten soda rattling when he hits the metal. 

            “Why’d you leave?”  Haru demands, relentless.

            Rin looks away.  He doesn’t want to talk about it.  But Haru just shakes his shoulders.  “Why’d you leave, Rin?”  He raises his voice this time, cracking on his name.

            It’s the sound of his name coming from Haru’s lips, so different from when he’d heard it less than an hour ago, that finally breaks the dam in his chest.  “Because it was over!  Ok?  It was over and I didn’t want to stay there and wait for you to come out and tell me it was only about the sex.  I’m not…I wasn’t ready for that.  Ok?  Are you happy now?”  His voice trails away at the end, coming out more pathetic than furious.  Fuck.

            Haru doesn’t say anything.  Rin doesn’t want to see the look on his face, so he just stays as he is, staring at the entrance to the hallway, which is conspicuously empty.  He wonders what they look like.  Haru’s an idiot.  If he doesn’t let Rin go, he’s going to have some troublesome rumors surrounding him.

            It takes him a minute to notice the shaking on his shirt.  It’s subtle, so light that if Haru’s fingers weren’t bumping against his collarbone, Rin never would’ve noticed.

            When he looks up, the expression on Haru’s face is one he hasn’t seen in over a year.  Since their second relay together.  He looks like he’s about to cry, and Rin hates himself more than ever for giving him that expression.

            “Haru, I –“  He cuts himself off, not sure what he’s even planning to say.  _Sorry I fell in love with you_?  _Sorry I didn’t leave sooner_?

            “You’re the worst,” Haru tells him, barely above a whisper.

            He drops his head.  “Heh…I already know that.”

            The hands disappear from his collar only to reappear on his cheeks.  He doesn’t even get a warning before Haru’s kissing him again.  It’s nothing like their first one, or even their second.  Or any of the ones they’ve shared.

            It’s soft, tender, sweet.  Haru’s lips taste vaguely like shampoo, but there’s still an undercurrent of chlorine that won’t come out.  He doesn’t push for tongue, neither of them do.  It’s just a kiss.  Soft and lingering, but when they break apart, Rin finds he can’t breathe.  There’s a lump in his chest blocking his air, his heartrate…he’s sure he’s going to die at any moment.

            Haru bumps his forehead against his, resting it there.  They’re both breathing harder than they should be considering how innocent the kiss was.  “I’m in love with you too Rin.”

            Rin jerks his head up so fast he slams the back of it into the vending machine.  “Ow…”

            Haru chuckles, nearly silent, and then presses their lips together again for just a second.  “Please stay the night.”

            He reaches out and grabs the hem of Haru’s shirt.  It’s thin; there’s no way Haru’s warm in what he’s wearing.  He must’ve grabbed the first thing he found when he got out of the shower.  Rin tugs it a little, just so Haru knows he’s still there.  “Say it again.”  It comes out more pathetic than it should, but Haru doesn’t make fun of him for it.

            “I’m in love with you, Rin,” Haru repeats, not sounding ashamed at all.

            Rin breathes out, the lump shifting so he can function again, and Haru finally steps away from him.  Rin doesn’t release his shirt.  “I can stay the night?”  He asks, tentative even though the offer had been made moments before.

            “Yeah.”

            Rin smiles then.  Real and bright and _real_.  He releases Haru’s shirt just long enough to grab his bag, abandoned on the concrete.  When he goes back to grab it, Haru intercepts him and laces their fingers together instead.

            It’s too late for anyone to pay much attention to two guys walking out of the station holding hands, and even if they were looking, Rin can’t find it in himself to care.  He walks too close to Haru, bumping his shoulder the whole way back to his house.  It isn’t until they’re inside, wrapped in blankets and each other, that Rin remembers the soda he’d abandoned in the vending machine.


End file.
